The Brown Woman’s Invisibility in If You See Me Don’t Say Hi

     Sentence analysis or r/opinion: 

 “Meanwhile, I harbored unrequited crushes on white girls… who, unlike my cousin Monali, didn’t have to bleach their arm hair or wax their upper lips. They were girls who seemed to know their place in the world without ever questioning it.” (Patel 82)

    Although If You See Me Don’t Say Hi centralizes around the fickle relationship between brothers, the theme of race prevails above anything else. The narrator, after experiencing countless microaggressions and feeling a sense of ostracism throughout his childhood, internalizes all the racism endured. Consequently, the narrator idolizes white women, viewing their beauty through the lens of eurocentrism, whilst simultaneously bringing down brown women.

    The quote: “Meanwhile, I harbored unrequited crushes on white girls… who, unlike my cousin Monali, didn’t have to bleach their arm hair or wax their upper lips. They were girls who seemed to know their place in the world without ever questioning it.” (Patel 82) is a good passage to refer to when thinking about the narrator's internal views. With this passage, the narrator strips Desi women of their femininity by associating a trait shared amongst people of all races, with masculinity. The narrator is projecting his discomfort within his racial identity onto those to whom he believes share his racial “inferiority”.

    The devaluation of brown women in the story is directly linked to the narrator’s internalized racism (to which he never confronts) because his treatment throughout his childhood led him to think his race is inferior to white people. The narrator is unable to fully accept that his race, and the people of his race, are beautiful. 

    But then there’s Deepika. She is the only brown woman the narrator speaks of without any sexualization

(besides his mom), and he even speaks about her with admiration. Perhaps this is due to her relationship with Deepak, someone the narrator has (mostly) grown up admiring. I can’t say for sure why the narrator views Deepika with such deep regard, but I can assume it’s because Deepak loved her. Therefore, out of familial obligation, the narrator adjusts his previously-used lens shrouded by eurocentrism, and refocuses it to see Deepika for what she is: a remarkable, beautiful, brown woman.